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Opinion

OHIP For the Taliban?

by Klaus Rohrich

February 2, 2004

abdul Karim Khadr, the youngest son of ahmed Said Khadr, was severely wounded during a shootout with Pakistani troops near the afghan border last October and as a result is permanently paralyzed. as soon as he is fit to travel, young Khadr is planning to return to live with what’s left of his family here in Canada. This raises some interesting questions, not the least of which is who is going to cover his medical expenses?

While I understand that young Khadr is a Canadian citizen, I wonder how fighting for a foreign power affects that status. In addition, the idea that OHIP is obligated to provide care for an individual wounded during the course of fighting in a war in which Canada is currently a participant on the other side is preposterous. In light of recent suicide bombings in afghanistan that resulted in the death of a Canadian soldier, a case could even be made for charging Khadr with treason, as presumably he, his brothers and father and the homicide bomber all fought for the same cause.

If I understand it correctly, the elder Khadr has made a career out of killing "infidels" or caring for widows and orphans, depending on who you want to believe. What has been indisputably established is that the entire Khadr family was deeply involved with fundamentalist Islamic causes, was friends with master terrorist Osama bin Laden, were variously involved in armed conflict against the U.S. army, the Pakistani army and security forces as well as afghanistan’s Northern alliance. Presumably they would also now fight against Canadian antiterrorist units currently deployed in afghanistan. The elder Khadr was charged with attempting to bomb the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan in 1995, but through the diligent good works of one Jean Chretien, was released without having to face trial.

To listen to his friends and family, ahmed Said Khadr was an absolute saint. "He was a wonderful man. You could say he was a friend of God." His friend Khalid Khawaja is quoted as saying. They dismiss his alleged involvement with terrorists by claiming that any action Khadr took against others was in defense of himself and his religion.

and there’s the rub. The Islamic fundamentalists do not believe in any form of government other than an Islamic theocracy. Consequently they pose a de facto threat to all governments that are not Islamic in nature, including our own.

I am finding it difficult to understand how our government continues to turn a blind eye to the terrorists among us who pose a real threat to our way of life. Indeed they treat these people in what appears to be a preferential manner. To propose that OHIP would cover the medical needs of young abdul Karim Khadr is so far out in left field as to defy any sense of reality.

Let’s compare how the Government of Canada feels about 95-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guards with how it feels about Islamic militants. at every opportunity they pursue old men like Ivan Demyanyuk, who was deported on the flimsiest evidence. He was later cleared of any wrongdoing in his native Ukraine.

On the other hand, when someone like ahmed Said Khadr is arrested and charged with a terrorist act, the Prime Minister of this country gets personally involved in getting the charges dismissed! (This Same Prime Minister, incidentally, laid the blame for the World Trade Center bombing on the victims)

What’s wrong with this picture? Could it be that as a nation we are going soft on terrorism because we want to preserve our status as a multicultural society? are we anxious to demonstrate how tolerant we are by making excuses for criminal acts so we can rack up brownie points with uncle Kofi and his Cheshire cats at the UN?

The time has come to draw the line on Islamic terrorists in Canada. The goal of terrorism, simply put, is to cause terror. Terrorism is not an act of desperation committed by desperate people. It is a means to an end and that end is no secret. It has been clearly stated by al Queda, the Taliban and the more radical Middle Eastern Mullahs. The end is the destruction of Israel, the death of all Jews and finally, world domination.

Unless we are prepared to accept Sharia law with its stoning, beheadings, amputations and other ghastly practices as the eventual basis of Canadian jurisprudence, we would be well advised to take a more proactive role in keeping tabs on these people. a good beginning would be enacting legislation that will strip individuals who fight for foreign powers of their Canadian citizenship.